VIDEO Highlights: Denver Nuggets Beat Detroit Pistons 89-79

Oct 29, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Nuggets guard Arron Afflalo (10) with the ball against Detroit Pistons guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (5) during the first half at Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

It wasn’t always pretty, but after a slow-paced, physical game, the Denver Nuggets defeated the visiting Detroit Pistions, 89-79. Check out some highlights from the game:

The Nuggets game plan appeared to include a deliberate focus on half court sets and working the ball inside to their bigs. And although it wasn’t flashy, I have to admit that I enjoyed seeing the Nuggets grind out a victory against a gritty opponent who was looking to get into a back alley brawl from the opening tip.

After a quiet preseason, Kenneth Faried reminded fans why the franchise signed him to a lucrative extension this offseason, leading the team with 22 points to go along with 17 rebounds (including 7 offensive boards) and 4 assists. It should come as no surprise that Faried was the spark plug that powered the Nuggets, and during stretches when it seemed the team was losing focus, Faried would make a hustle play that seemed to re-energize his teammates as well as the entire Pepsi Center crowd. If Faried can turn in performances like this on a consistent basis, he’s going to be the heart and soul of this team as well as a Western Conference All-Star.

Timofey Mozgov recorded a double-double as well, contributing 13 points and 11 rebounds, and 2 big blocks. As usual, Moz was good for a couple of “WTF?!” moments during the game (and he got absolutely buried on a dunk by Andre Drummond), but I was really excited about how he looked for the most part. He was physical on defense and didn’t allow anything easy in the paint. He bodied up his man and, other than a couple of mental errors where he let easy rebounds slip away to the Pistons, he made Detroit’s bigs work for every point and board down low. Moz was aggressive on the offensive end of the court, too, as he focused on spacing and being ready to receive passes from driving guards. If you aren’t a Mozgov fan already, it’s time to get on board. This kid is going to be a big part of this team’s success this year and he’s only going to get better as the year goes on.

Arron Afflalo had 15 points in his first game back in a Nuggets uniform, and rookie Jusuf Nurkic played 13 quality minutes that were as entertaining as they were productive. I mean, just look at this kid work:

Free agent addition Alonzo Gee showed that it’s going to be hard for head coach Brian Shaw to keep him off the floor in crunch time thanks to his outstanding defensive ability. Pistons guard D.J. Augustin was giving Denver fits until Gee matched up on him in the fourth quarter and immediately took Augustin out of his rhythm. The entire Nuggets line up seemed to feed off of Gee’s defensive focus, and that’s something that will be hard to overlook when the Nuggets find themselves battling it out in close games this season.

It wasn’t all gold stars for the Nuggets, though. Danilo Gallinari showed a lot of rust returning from 18 months away from the team due to injury. He shot 1-8 from the floor including a dismal 1-5 from deep. Ty Lawson was off his game, too, shooting just 1-7 from the floor. And Faried struggled to guard Pistons forward Josh Smith who led all scorers with 25 points. Smith is a volume scorer when he’s hot, so it wasn’t super surprising to see him finding the hoop, but Faried didn’t seem to have an answer for defending Smith’s mid-range game. That’s something that could haunt this team when they face some of the talented 4s in the Western Conference.

All in all, it was a nice win for the Nuggets and shows that, while the team’s style may be changing from the run-and-gun days of old, their new identity of working out of half court sets and playing physical defense might lead to great things.

The Denver Nuggets (1-0) travel to Oklahoma City on Saturday to face the Kevin Durant-less Thunder (0-1).